University science crisis grows as courses are scrapped

The true extent of the crisis in science and maths teaching at Britain's universities will be revealed by figures released tomorrow that will show 10 per cent of courses have been scrapped in the past decade. Whole regions of the country will soon be unable to offer science subjects, according to the report from the University College Union.

In an attempt to arrest the trend, the government has offered universities millions of pounds to continue to provide courses. However, it may be too late for the physics department at Reading, where the university's council will vote tomorrow on whether to accept the vice-chancellor's plans to drop the subject .

Students from poorer backgrounds and ethnic minorities will be hit hardest by the cuts, the study says. 'This will have a disproportionate impact on the type of people the government is trying to get into higher education: those from non-traditional, working-class backgrounds who are more likely to live at home and cannot afford the high maintenance costs,' said Stephen Court, the author of the report.

Earlier this month Tony Blair called for world-famous scientists to be 'celebrated as our sportsmen and women, our actors, our business entrepreneurs' in an attempt to encourage young people to be enthused about science.

It was part of a reaction to industry leaders who say the economy is suffering because of the lack of graduates trained in this area. BAE systems has been running a schools roadshow that aims to get pupils as young as nine excited about science.

Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, last week demanded that universities tell the government before cutting back on these 'strategic subjects'.

'This government is taking firm action to support strategic subjects and prevent closures to vulnerable university science departments,' he said. 'We have just announced £75m of extra resources to support strategic subjects such as physics and chemistry and encourage universities to go on providing subjects that are more expensive to teach.'